V. I. Lenin

Speech At A Meeting
      Of The Central Committee Of The R.S.D.L.P.(B.)

December 11(24), 1917[1]

Delivered:11 December, 1917First Published:1929 inMinutes
      of the CC R.S.D.L.P(B.), August 1917-February 1918Published according to the MinutesSource:Lenin’sCollected
      Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 26, 1972,
      pp. 377Translated:Yuri Sdobnikov and George
      Hanna, Edited by George HannaTranscription & HTML Markup:Charles
      Farrell and David WaltersOnline Version:Lenin Internet ArchiveNovember,
      2000

Comrade Lenin proposes (1) to dismiss the bureau of the
      Constituent Assembly group; (2) to explain our attitude towards
      the Constituent Assembly to the group in the form of theses; (3)
      to draw up an address to the group in which it should be
      mentioned that the Party Rules prescribe the subordination of
      all representative institutions to the Central Committee; (4) to
      appoint a member of the Central Committee to lead the group; (5)
      to draw up rules for the group.

[1]On December 11 (24), 1917, the Contra1 Committee of the
      R.S.D.L.P.(13.) discussed one question—the stand taken by
      the Bolshevik group in the Constituent Assembly. It was raised
      in view of the fact that “right-wing sentiments have
      prevailed in the group, whose views differ from those of the
      Central Committee”(Minutes of the Central Committee of
      the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)  August, 1917 to February 1918,(in
      Russian, Moscow, 1958, p. 100).

The provisional bureau of the group opposed the C.C. line on the
      Constituent Assembly. It took a bourgeois-democratic approach to
      the Assembly and held that its convocation was the final stage
      of the revolution . It proposed that control over its
      convocation should be abandoned. The Central Committee resolved
      to work out theses on the Constituent Assembly and set a meeting
      of members of the group in Smolny at 4.00 p.m. on December 12
      (25) to discuss a CC. report and theses and to re-elect the
      bureau of the group. Lenin read out his “Theses on the Constituent Assernbly”,
      which he had written at the Central Cornmittee’s
      request. After a prolonged debate, they were unanimously adopted
      by the group. On December 13 (26) they were published byPravda.